A variety of image-forming apparatuses have been widely used, such as a duplication apparatus capable of reading document images by a scanner and printing readout images, a printer or facsimile machine capable of receiving and printing out transmitted images, and a multi-functional machine which combines copy, print, and facsimile functions in one single machine. As the machines and process operations become more complex, it is increasingly important to properly instruct priority and ordering of multiple operations in order to operate efficiently.
In these image-forming apparatuses, the process operations can vary widely depending on various setting conditions, which are related to the original documents, such the type and density of the document, and related to image processing, such as image enlargement/reduction, double/single-sided, and space margin.
A user has to select the conditions and instruct the machine to function properly and efficiently through necessary setting inputs. It is required, therefore, for the user to view a considerably large number of items on a display screen, for example, to select from and make necessary setting inputs accurately.
This problem has been caused at least partly by the fact that conditions (or general information) of the original document are not recognized on machine's side, and that all conceivable options, therefore, have had to be listed in menu selection even including those items unnecessary for the document currently being processed. As a result, the selection menu becomes quite complicated and the operation for menu setting involves tangled procedures, thereby detracting from the user's convenience in machine operation.
In order to obviate this problem, several image-forming apparatuses have been disclosed previously.
For example, Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 8-279884 ('884 application) discloses an image-forming apparatus which is configured to perform a pre-scan of reading a document original upon closing a document presser cover over the document placed onto a document platen; distinguish a document image that has been read out, between color and black-and-white, and character and picture images; and automatically classify image processing according to the distinction, thereby improving the image processing capability of the apparatus.
As another example, another image-forming apparatus is disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 2001-285534 ('534 application), in which a setting for document reading conditions is performed with more ease.
Specifically, if the conditions for reading a document are set by a user, the apparatus is configured for the contents of this setting to be grouped together as a set which is subsequently stored to correspond to a designated button for invoking the set of reading conditions. Then, the stored contents can be invoked by touching this button and some of previous items included therein are updated automatically. As a result, the setting of document reading conditions can be achieved with more ease in the apparatus.
While several improvements have been made as indicated above, several problems still persist, in which it is required for a user to view a vast number of items, and identify and accurately input necessary ones. This has detracted from the user's convenience in operating the apparatus.
This problem in performing input setting for print processing has rather increased recently, as encountered in advanced image-forming apparatuses which are provided with numerous functions from top to bottom in frequency of usage, or in multi-functional apparatuses with some of the numerous functions in combination.
In the abovementioned image-forming apparatus disclosed in the '884 application, the document image is automatically classified and processed according to the classification of the document type which is distinguished based the document image resulting from the pre-scan. However, since the results obtained from the pre-scan are not reflected directly to setting items displayed on a screen, efficiency of setting the print processing conditions has not improved.
Also, in the image-forming apparatus disclosed in the '534 application, the setting contents are arbitrarily selected and input by a user, grouped together as a set, and stored as a group to correspond to a condition invocation button, as indicated earlier.
Although the stored contents are then invoked by touching the button and some of the input items can be updated, the steps themselves of selecting setting contents are still unchanged and efficiency of setting operation has not much improved.
Therefore, several problems remain yet to be solved in the known image-forming apparatuses.
Typically, it is not feasible for a user to watch an image finish expected from current setting contents prior to print processing after reading a document original, while the function of recent image-forming apparatuses has become increasingly complex and setting operations have also become more complicated, or some image finishes are output in a way contrary to what the user wanted or intended during the input setting.